CHAPTER 3

I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the window again, it still showed the same thing. The window was informing me that I had reached Lv. -1. The fact that there were levels was shocking enough but discovering that I somehow managed to level down after escaping a life or death situation was a whole different thing.

[You have accumulated two positive points and one negative point that you can invest into your stats. Do you wish to do so now?]

The system informed me.

So there were stats as well and I had points that I could invest into them, I was still trying to wrap my brain around all of this. Since I was unresponsive for some time the system began talking once again.

[If you do not wish to use up your points now, any points that have not been invested will be saved and you will have the option to use them when you reach the next level.]

Interesting, I wondered as I tried to decide. You can save your points but you won’t be able to use them until the next level is reached. Until then they will be frozen.

“Yes,” I finally said, “I wish to invest my points now.”

As soon as the words were spoken a new window appeared before me, a stat window.

⸢Strength: 10

Fortitude: 10

Dexterity: 10

Stamina: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Dark:-10⸥

I scrutinized the attributes window carefully though I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for. This seemed a standard attribute window, present in most RPG games, save for the last one, the dark attribute, not only was it an uncommon stat in games it was even more peculiar that it was the only attribute that was in the negatives. I cleared my throat and spoke up.

“Add one point to dexterity and one to stamina.” I said.

I always had trouble deciding when it came to attributes and stats, when I played games I usually tried to invest as many points as possible in all the given attributes without focusing on a specific build. Was it wise to do so now, as well? I guess I had time to meditate on it, but for now this will do.

As for the remaining negative point, although I considered investing it in the dark attribute, the fact that I didn’t have a single clue what it did, gave me pause. I chose not to invest it for now.

“That is all. Conclude the point investment.” I said.

[Affirmative]

[Congratulations, you have escaped “The Dungeon of the Stars” successfully! You have received an award. Will you accept?]

“Yes.”

[You have received the item “Souvenir of the Great Ones”]

The system announced and with the announcement I watched as an item materialized right in front of my eyes. It was a hilt of a sword but it had no blade. The hilt seemed made of silver though it appeared ancient and rusted in places. I waited for the rest of the weapon to materialize but no such thing happened. The bladeless hilt levitated before me until the system spoke again.

[Place the item in your inventory?]

“Um, yes…” I said with some hesitation.

Flick…

I heard a sound as the hilt disappeared.

[Congratulations you have earned a new title]

What? There was still more of this?

[“He Who Rose Again” As long as this title is equipped three attributes of your choosing will be raised by one stat point]

[Will you equip this title?]

That sounded really good.

“Yes, I will.” I announced.

[Choose the three attributes that will be attached to the equipped title]

After thinking about it for some time I finally settled on three attributes.

“Strength, Fortitude and Dexterity,” I announced.

⸢Strength: 10+1

Fortitude: 10+1

Dexterity: 11+1

Stamina: 11

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Dark:-10⸥

That’s how my attributes window looked presently. Even after investing those points I didn’t necessarily feel any different. Is this really how it worked? By simply investing the points, I would become stronger, faster and more durable. What about intelligence? Would I suddenly become smarter through the simple act of investing some points into the intelligence attribute? I guess time would tell.

Once all the announcements and rewards were done I took a deep breath and sat back onto the ground. I finally looked around and inspected my surroundings. I was standing on top of a hill, the hill wasn’t too tall but I also didn’t think that anyone would rejoice in the idea of climbing it on foot. I looked down. There at the bottom of the hill was a small lake; it sparkled with a blue sapphire color as the radiant rays of the sun lent their glow to it. Sparks of gold were glistening all over it and a light breeze washed over the land. I felt a sudden peace in my heart amidst the harmony of nature.

The peace was short lived, almost instantly I felt my chest tighten up, as if someone had grabbed me threateningly. I was forced to face the fact of my circumstances. Why did I act like nothing was amiss? Just an hour ago I was in my bedroom, playing games on my computer and hunting for a new job opportunity. And now here I was fighting monsters and ghouls and acting like this had been my life from the start. What of the life I had been living for the past 23 years? What of my family? What of my friends? What of the old me? I thought of my father. How will he react when he finds out I am gone? What of my mother that I had been mustering the courage to seek out. That is, if I was gone at all. For all I knew I was still back in my room, dreaming up all of this. I hid my face in my hands as I waited for the tears to come, overwhelmed by confusion and panic.

No tears came forward, the tightening in my chest was still there but I could not cry. What was the meaning of this? Was I being dishonest with myself? Was the source of this feeling not the yearning for the old but the opposite? Was this feeling in my chest the result of the fact that I had felt relieved at my circumstances? If I were to tell the truth I would admit that this is something that I always dreamed off, it was the sort of wish that I whispered to myself, the sort of wish that no one must ever know of; the secret desire that became suppressed as I grew older but in truth it had always been there.

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I did not feel scared because I was in this new world, rather, the thing that scared me was the overpowering thrill that came along with this new world. That’s right, I was ecstatic, to learn, explore and grow in this new world, the world that lacked all the constraints that were present in the old one.

I breathed slowly as the clutch at my chest grew weaker until it was no longer there. I smiled as the beautiful nature held me in its motherly embrace. This was a new beginning.

“There’s someone there.” I heard a voice.

I stood up and looked around. Behind a rock, I saw three figures, two men and a woman by the looks of it. I think they intended to hide but they were doing a laughably poor job.

“Let’s attack.” One of the guys said.

“No,”

“We shouldn’t”

The other two protested.

“Hello there,” I greeted them with a wave.

All three of them cringed, as they tried to hide better and once again, they failed.

“Let’s just talk to him…” The girl said at last as she emerged from behind the rock.

“Greetings,” she smiled awkwardly.

I smiled back and nodded.

“Was it you?” The guy who wanted to attack asked, pointing at me, “did you clear the dungeon?”

I felt no strong animosity from them nor did I sense any real danger emanating from the trio but it never hurt to be wary of strangers, which is why I held my hand close to my dagger as I replied.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Don’t act stupid with me, you know exactly what I mean, there was a huge floating fortress in the sky and now it is gone, did you have something to do with it?” the man asked.

The one that was the most hostile to me was a young man with brown unkempt hair. He had minimal armor on and a basic long sword at his hip that he was also ready to draw at any moment.

I tried to think of a proper answer to give at this moment. I had to give an answer that would be unlikely to give rise to more questions, something that would turn focus away from me. Telling the truth was not an option, because I didn’t know what the truth was, if I tried to explain my side of the story I would only incriminate myself further.

“Oh that? I had nothing to do with it; I saw it from afar and was drawn here by curiosity, but as I was approaching the fortress, it simply disappeared.” I lied.

It was the best thing I could come up with but it would have to do for now. The trio, especially the man with the sword, eyed me suspiciously.

“Have you seen anything else?” he asked me.

“Nothing,” I shook my head.

“Where did you come from?” the girl asked.

The question did not feel pointed, it did not feel like I was being interrogated, judging by her soft tone it seemed as if she was simply curious. The girl had short red hair and wore armor similar to the man’s. I couldn’t discern any particular weapon on her, but she did have a number of sticks attached all over her belt.

“Um, I come from over yonder,” I pointed at my back.

“You come from the Levantin Kingdom?” she asked.

“Not quite, I am a traveler; I was just…passing through…” I stammered.

I was never the best liar.

She nodded, slightly confused.

“Who are you?” I used the confusion as an opportunity to turn the questions on them. “Why do you come here?”

“I am Meili Ashborn,” the girl started, “The three of us are members of the “Revolving Ark” guild. We came here to investigate the sudden emergence of the floating dungeon.”

“Don’t bother introducing yourself to this lowlife, aye I am sure of it now, there is no way he had anything to do with the dungeon, I feel no power emanating from him, he is just some vagabond, no more no less.” The first man said as he pushed his way past me and started looking around.

He checked the ground, combing through the short grass, he then held a hand over his eyes as he looked up at the sky. He picked up a small rock and threw it up in the sky but nothing happened.

No power coming from me huh? Shall we test that out, I wanted to say but I held it back. He could have been right, the ghouls I defeated earlier could not be indicative of my strength; I had no idea how strong the people of this world were. A misplaced threat could cost me my life before I even knew it. That’s why I need as much information as possible.

“The floating fortress,” I began as the guy was still looking around, “that doesn’t happen a lot, around here, does it?”

The girl laughed, she thought I was making some joke.

“No, it doesn’t” She finally replied, still unsure whether I was serious or not.

“If this is such a significant event why are there no more people around here, why just the three of you?” I asked next.

“Well this parcel of land belongs to the duke of Alcataine; our guild got the permission to explore the area first.” She explained as if it was common knowledge. “Besides, the dungeon only appeared a day ago, there was not much time to react.”

“Right,”

“Damn it all,” the guy shouted, “it’s really gone.”

“I know, I was quite disappointed as well.” I said.

He ignored my words as he went back to his friends.

“What do we do now? Should we just go back to the guild and report that it has disappeared?” the girl asked.

The third member simply shrugged. He seemed very shy. He was a tall and bulky man that appeared close in age to the other two. He also didn’t carry any weapons from what I could see, save for a large shield that he had strapped over his back. Every time I looked in his direction he avoided my gaze, lowering his eyes to the ground.

“There’s not much else we could do,” the first guy said, while rubbing his chin. “The leader will be so disappointed.”

“That would be nothing new…” Meili said.

He scowled at her but did not speak further. He kept moving first and Meili followed after him.

“Come on, Alt.” She said to the third guy.

“Okay,” he murmured.

“Where are you going?” she turned to me.

“Well as I said I kind of just wander around so I really have no set destination in mind.” I replied.

“Well then if you want to feel free to walk with us for a while, the wilderness is never safe so we could always use some company.” She said.

I was lucky to find someone so early; I could not learn or achieve much by simply staying by myself.

“Oh I would love to.” I said finally.

“Fine whatever, just don’t expect us to save you if you get in trouble.” The first guy said as he stomped off.

“That’s Remen,” Meili whispered, “He always tries to act high and mighty in front of others.”

“I’ve noticed,” I said.

As I walked with them I couldn’t help but gape at the scenery that surrounded me. It was all so new and strange, on the ground I spotted different flowers all covered in multitude of colors, hidden in the grass I spotted all sorts of different insects and small animals that I’ve never seen before. There was a tree that had white, translucent leaves and a small pond where a large azure snake circled and stirred inside the waters.

“You’ve never been here before, have you?” Meili asked after a while.

“No, I haven’t, this is all very different from…from where I am from.” I responded.

“We have almost reached the Goldar Forest,” Meili said as we climbed another hill.

When we reached the top I looked down and for a few seconds I felt unable to utter a single word or produce any sound. My eyes were having difficulties processing this new sight.

What I spotted was a giant forest and when I say giant I really mean it in every sense of that word. Not only did the forest stretch over a large piece of land, it was also gigantic, in a sense that it was made up of giant trees. As we went down the hill and got closer to the forest I simply could not take my eyes off it. It was so mesmerizing.

The trees had black and white barks that stretched high into the sky, easily reaching the size of a typical modern building. The boughs of the trees were lush and dense, made up of dark green leaves. From what I could tell, one leaf easily reached the size of a human palm, if not slightly larger.

Snaking off into the forest was a narrow winding path that was made up of orange dirt. As we were about to step into the forest I noticed a group of winged creatures emerge from the forest as they took off into the sky. The sun shone brightly so I could not take a proper look at those flying things. I only saw them as shades as they flapped their giant wings and flew away.

“Griffins,” Meili said as if she could read my confusion, “They usually live in the boughs of these trees, worry not, they don’t attack humans.”

Right, I thought, of course they are griffins, what else would they be. I felt dizzy at the income of all the new scenery and information and yet most of all I felt an unshakable sense of excitement and the desire to see more.

Walking through the forest I felt like we were the tiniest of ants, rummaging through the humongous forest. The wind blew gently, shaking the leaves, as the beams of sunlight that poked through the trees danced along the ground.

I wanted to ask so many questions but I didn’t even know where to start; for now I simply settled on watching around with my jaw to the floor and not being able to produce any coherent words.

With my enhanced hearing I could hear every rustle and murmur of the forest; it felt as if the forest itself was alive with many different sounds that it produced. The sensation had not been overwhelming, rather it somehow completed the experience, I could sense it all, as if I was also a part of it, and nature was using its subtle ways to communicate its beauty to me.

As I continued to enjoy the scenery I started hearing new sounds, sounds that didn’t feel like they were part of the natural world. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact location but I could hear something that sounded very similar to footsteps.

Before I had the chance to say anything I noticed that Renan stopped in his tracks. He was looking ahead of us. I approached him and took a look. It appeared to be a horse-drawn carriage, turned over and with no horses in sight. Strewn around it were a few barrels, most of them appeared empty while others appeared to contain fruits and vegetables that were presently spilled onto the ground.

“Be careful,” I said to them as I reached for my dagger. “Somebody else is here.”

I focused on my hearing once again trying to locate the footsteps that grew louder and louder. Soon, I realized that it was not necessary. Emerging from behind the giant trees was a group of armed, hooded men.